Monthly Archive: June 2017

30

I mostly pick my own books; I’ll occasionally go with a recommendation, or someone will buy me a book. This year I also participated in Seattle Indie Bookstore day, which meant I got a few unknown books thanks to grab bags and such.

The good news: No one-star books this year. And more four-star than three- and two-star ratings combined. Nearly 20% of the books have the coveted five-star rating. The average is 3.76. Sweet.

Type

Once again it is no surprise that I keep coming back to non-fiction books.

I don’t know what it is. I’m just drawn to non-fiction books more often.

Style or Genre

Ah, memoir. You, combined with essays and sociology books could keep me happy for years. (The styles you can’t see include Young Adult, Science Fiction, Science, Humor, Health, Etiquette, and Biography.)

Demographics

This is where I’m trying more to focus on diversity in the authors I’m reading.

27

Best for: People looking for some insight how the U.S. got where it is, and some ideas for what we need to do to change that.

In a nutshell: The inequality in this country is harming us, and the powerful (in Government, in Business, in Banking) are so focused on the idea of meritocracy that they can’t see that it isn’t working.

Line that sticks with me: “In reality our meritocracy has failed not because it’s too meritocratic, but because in practice, it isn’t very meritocratic at all.” (p53)

Why I chose it: I finally read the back cover and realized that the topic is something that interests me greatly.

Review: This well-paced, well-researched, easy to read book is yet another one that I wish I’d read as part of a book club. I want to talk about the things I just read, and get other perspectives! Which I think is a pretty strong endorsement.

Mr. Hayes (of MSNBC fame – also his twitter feed @chrislhayes is a nice mix of news and incredulity at the news) divides the 240 pages of his book into seven meaty chapters that fly by. He starts by providing the reasonable premise that the U.S. likes to think of itself as a meritocracy – that anyone can get ahead if they just pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Never mind institutional challenges (don’t worry, he gets to those); those who get to the top are there because they deserve it.

He then goes on to explain how this mythical notion, if it every actually was true, is certainly no longer true. Using such great examples as steroid use in baseball, the banking collapse (and bailout), and the Iraq war, Mr. Hayes provides a thoughtful commentary on how our systems are not operating in a way that allows people to get what they deserve; they instead are functioning in such a way that they foster even more inequality as time goes on. He provides some interesting reasons for why it is getting worse, such as the fact that the elites of any field are out of touch with the rest of us, and that when we set ‘being the best’ as the ultimate goal, we also set ourselves up for people to cheat their way to the top.

I found two parts of the book especially compelling: the first is early one, when Mr. Hayes uses his high school alma mater (Hunter College High School) to demonstrate how something that is ostensibly 100% merit-based has become quite inequitable. The other is his ability to remind the reader that people have different descriptions of the elite — the Left see the Elite as the power-hungry corporate CEOs and Wall Street Banks; the Right see the Elite as Hollywood, academics, and fancy intellectuals — but that ultimately what matters is that the elite don’t seem to care for or represent the rest of us.

Mr. Hayes doesn’t leave us without hope; he offers up examples like the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street as different ways the people have gotten together to fight back against those in power. The entire last section is full of different ideas, although none so concrete that I feel I can point to what I need to do next. That said, I think a lot of what we’ve seen in reaction to the 45th U.S. President fits in line with his suggestions.

I’m leaving out other important things, such as his fascinating discussion of insurrectionists versus institutionalists is fascinating, but hopefully you get the point. What’s so disconcerting is that this book was published five years ago, and yet the downward spiral continues. I wish this book weren’t so relevant, and that it was more history book than current events, but alas, here we are.

25

HAPPYPRIDE!!

Horrific Legislation and Executive Action

“Doctors and reproductive health advocates are saying the GOP’s Senate health care bill looks like a big step backward. On Thursday, the bill was released to the public after a secretive deliberation process, and the Senate is expected to cast a vote on it next week. Here are the four key ways this bill could undermine the health of American women.” Once again, 13 men wrote a bill that’s bad for women’s health (by Julia Belluz for Vox)

Criminal Punishment System

““I don’t understand why they got to kill everybody,” said Tonya Isabell, 54, Lyles’ biological cousin, but whom everyone present called “auntie.” Cousin Robin Cockerherm said Lyles was “78 pounds wet. They could have pushed her aside like this,” swiping the air with her palm. The police shooting of an African-American woman [Charleena Lyles] appears bound to raise particular questions for a department that is operating under a consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice over its use of what a federal investigation found to be excessive amounts of force. The same investigation also found indications of biased policing, although it reached no firm conclusions on that score.” Seattle police shoot black woman; tensions run high (by David Kroman for Crosscut)

Ijeoma Oluo with questions on the shooting of Charleena Lyles Ijeoma Oluo

“When people have talked about this issue in the past, they have focused on how, with the club’s vast resources and worldwide profile, a United team would help develop the women’s game. That is still true, but it now works the other way too – United are missing out on an easy way of engaging with their huge female fanbase, in Manchester and further afield, and promoting the importance of women in the make-up of their club. A women’s team would do all of that. The game is growing fast and other clubs have demonstrated they believe it is a big commercial asset, at very little cost. Why do United think differently?” Women’s Sport Week 2017: ‘Shocking’ that Man Utd do not have women’s team (by Rachel Brown-Finnis for BBC)

Racism

“As the woman grew more and more irate at the lack of white doctors, other people in the waiting room intervened. “Your child clearly has more issues with you being his mother than him needing to see a doctor,” said one woman. “You are extremely rude and racist.”” This Canadian Woman Demanded That A “White Doctor” Treat Her Son (by Ishmael N. Daro for Buzzfeed)

22

Best for: People who enjoy strong, witty writers who are able to handle fluffy and serious topics with equal finesse.

In a nutshell: Scaachi Koul shares some snipets of her life as the child of Indian immigrant now living in Canada.

Line that sticks with me: “It changes you, when you see someone similar to you, doing the thing you might want to do yourself.” (p 123)

Why I chose it: Because Lindy West, Jessica Valenti and Samantha Irby can’t all be wrong.

Review: I’d seen this book in my local bookstore a bunch of times and always walked past it because I thought it was a much more serious book. I didn’t fully process that the title was more of a joke than some clever way of of being hopeful (I’ve got the cover uploaded here so hopefully you see what I mean); that’s on me. Then I finally picked it up and flipped it over, and three of my favorite authors — and just generally awesome women — provided the blurbs. So obviously I purchased it immediately.

This is a collection of loosely connected essays in which Ms. Koul shares her perspective as a woman whose parents immigrated to Canada from India before she was born. She talks about body issues (the chapter on body hair is amazing), about being lighter skinned than other Indians. She talks about online harassment and rape culture.

I enjoyed Ms. Koul’s style of writing and her wit. Not everything is a laugh out loud joke, and some parts and extremely serious, but the book never feels heavy in a bad way. She somehow makes challenging topics feel manageable, if that makes sense. I’m so happy I got this book, and look forward to reading more from her.

19

Best for: Anyone who likes Paris, needs a bit of a quick, distracting read, and is willing to overlook the heteronormativity of it all.

In a nutshell: Four friends from Paris decided to write the type of advice book one might buy on impulse when shopping at Anthropologie.

Line that sticks with me: “darkest Africa” – used when referring to places where people might be from. I just … was a bit gobsmacked that this weird bit of racism made it past the editors.

Why I chose it: I’m pretty sure I bought it at a non-bookstore store because I’m a sucker for Paris and for advice.

Review: This book is fine. Yesterday my mind was not in a great place, and I just wanted something distracting. A book that talked about pretty clothes and a city I love and tips for making my hair looks good. And for the most part, this fit the bill.

It definitely assumes the reader is a woman who likes men, and it assumes that the reader has access to money. And is slender. But this is probably not a surprise, because the whole goal of the book seems to be to bring the stereotypes of Paris to life on the page. And they do, and mostly it just made me want to go out and find some jeans that actually fit and start wearing my red lipstick all the time.

18

Best for: Those interested in exploring how feminism has failed at inclusivity, and how U.S. society has failed Black women.

In a nutshell: bell hooks provides a history of how racism, sexism and classism have impacted Black women in the U.S.

Line that sticks with me: “The process begins with the individual woman’s acceptance that American women, without exception, are socialized to be racist, classist, and sexist, in varying degrees, and that labeling ourselves feminists does not change the fact that we must consciously work to rid ourselves of the legacy of negative socialization.”

Why I chose it: I picked this for my office’s equity and social justice book club because I don’t think my feminist reading has included nearly enough of the Black woman’s perspective, and I wanted to be able to discuss this with others.

Review: I’ve somehow managed to never read any bell hooks even though I’m familiar with her importance to feminism. With this great book (which is frustratingly hard to track down in bookstores – I had to resort to ordering online) I feel like I got a more in-depth education on issues that I’ve been trying to learn more about this year.

Starting with slavery, Dr. hooks examines how racism, sexism and classism work together in impacting the experience of Black women in the U.S. For example, she explores how women who were slaves were forced to perform “masculine” tasks, but men who were slaves were not compelled to perform “feminine” tasks, and how society has spent a lot of time examining how slavery impacted the Black male psyche but has spent far less time examining how it impacted — and continues to impact — Black women.

She also looks at how the patriarchy — when combined with racism — has influenced the experience of Black women in society, eschewing the idea that Black women exist in a matriarchy simply because some households are run by women.

In the sections that might be challenging to read for white women who consider themselves feminists, Dr. hooks examines the ways in which white women have pushed black women out of discussions of sexism, seeking to maintain their status within the patriarchy as at least above Black people. She also spends time looking at how society seems to default ‘women’ to mean white women and ‘Black’ to mean Black men, leaving Black women out completely, and what the implications of that are.

I appreciated Dr. hooks’s examination of how so much of feminism (as practices by white feminists) seeks not to overturn the system, but to make gains with the patriarchal, capitalist system that exists in this country. This isn’t particularly imaginative or revolutionary, and can mean that instead of fighting for true freedom, we just end up fighting with each other for material gains. I also appreciate that despite all of this, she doesn’t argue that feminism is only for white women; she sees the real benefits of it, but only when we can really fight for the freedom that feminism should bring about. I’m looking forward to discussing it at work this week.

This is a dense read (at under 200 pages it still took longer than I expected) but definitely worth it.

18

“Khan’s spokesperson dismissed the US President’s comments: “The mayor is busy working with the police, emergency services and the government to coordinate the response to this horrific and cowardly terrorist attack and provide leadership and reassurance to Londoners and visitors to our city. He has more important things to do than respond to Donald Trump’s ill-informed tweet that deliberately takes out of context his remarks urging Londoners not to be alarmed when they saw more police – including armed officers – on the streets.”” Sadiq Khan Says He “Has More Important Things To Do” Than Respond To Donald Trump’s Tweets (by Jim Waterson for Buzzfeed)

“The Trump Administration’s Department of Commerce has outraged LGBT groups by removing sexual orientation and gender identity from the list of categories explicitly protected from discrimination in its latest equal employment opportunity statement. After this story was published, the department then said it would re-issue the policy. “The Department of Commerce does not tolerate behavior, harassment, discrimination or prejudice based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, or disability,” read the 2017 Secretarial Policy Statement on Equal Employment Opportunity signed by Secretary Wilbur Ross. “We will also provide reasonable accommodations for applicants and employees with disabilities.”” Commerce Department Removes Sexual Orientation And Gender Identity From Equal Employment Policy (by David Mack for Buzzfeed News)

“The agency communicated its decision in a letter this week to lawyers representing the girl, an elementary school student in Highland, Ohio. The letter provided no reason or legal justification for withdrawing its 2016 conclusion that the girl’s school wrongly barred her from the girls’ bathroom and failed to address the harassment she endured from classmates and teachers, who repeatedly addressed her with male pronouns and the male name she was given at birth.” Education Dept. closes transgender student cases as it pushes to scale back civil rights investigations (by Emma Brown for Washington Post)

Criminal Punishment System

“Castile’s death garnered widespread attention — and sparked nationwide protests over the use of force by police — after his girlfriend broadcast the shooting’s aftermath on Facebook Live. Several members of the Castile family screamed profanities and cried after the verdict was announced, despite warnings from the judge that everyone in the courtroom should remain composed. “Let me go!” yelled Castile’s mother, Valerie.” Officer who shot Philando Castile found not guilty on all counts (by Ralph Ellis and Bill Kirkos for CNN)

Gun Violence

“Someone will say, “We cannot give in to fear.” To that I say: We already have. We gave in to fear on November 8, 2016, when we sent that man to the White House to put the stamp of the president on the harassment of Muslims. When we sent that man to the White House knowing he sexually abuses women with gleeful abandon. When we sent that man to the White House with his foolish, racist plan to make Mexico build him a wall.” ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (by Andrea Grimes via Medium)

“You get to grieve how helpless you felt all those miles away, for how inadequate every gesture felt from such a distance. You get to feel all that sadness. This was an act of terror specifically targeting the LGBT community in the midst of Pride Month in Latin Night. You were supposed to get that message. You get to respond to that personal threat with grief and anger for what was meant for you too. #HonorThemWithAction” Equality Florida Commemorates One Year Mark of Pulse Massacre And Continues to #HonorThemWithAction (Brittany at Equality Florida)

Capitalism

“”Walmart should fully comply with the law so that no one is illegally punished for a disability-related absence or for taking care of themselves or a loved one with a serious medical condition,” Dina Bakst, founder and president of A Better Balance, the advocacy group that prepared the report, told the New York Times. Among the complaints A Better Balance received, employees have said they’re afraid to call out sick, they’ve been penalized and even fired after taking sick time, and they face financial ruin as a result.” ‘I just don’t call out sick anymore at all’: New report says Walmart punishes employees for taking sick days (by Rachel Gillett for Business Insider)

“Delta’s decision is misguided. It’s also disingenuous. During the Obama presidency, Minneapolis’ Guthrie Theater, along with the Acting Company, a well-regarded classics company that tours nationally, presented a Julius Caesar in which Caesar bore an intentional resemblance to Obama.* Not only was there no controversy, Delta sponsored the tour of the show and continued sponsoring TAC the next season.” It’s Outrageous to Suggest That Any Production of Julius Caesar Could Glamorize Assassination (by Isaac Butler for Slate)

15

Best for: Those who enjoy amazing writing, searing honesty, and vulnerability.

In a nutshell: Roxane Gay shares a memoir of her life, framed through her relationship with her body.

Line that sticks with me: There are too many to include all of them. But here’s one: “But the pain of a tattoo is something to which you have to surrender because once you’ve started, you cannot really go back or you’ll be left with something not only permanent but unfinished. I enjoy the irrevocability of that circumstance.” (p 186)

Why I chose it: It’s Roxane Gay. Come on.

Review: I was so anxious to read this that instead of visiting my regular bookstore I stopped at chain store in the middle of the work day in a town I happened to be passing through because I wanted to be able to start reading it at the first possible opportunity. Which turned out to be waiting in line at a coffee shop before a meeting. A meeting I was nearly late to because the writing and story are so compelling that I did not want to put it down.

Dr. Gay (Professor Gay? She has a PhD, so I want to acknowledge that properly) has written a memoir that is unlike any other I’ve read. It feels almost like poetry, as the 300 pages are split into nearly 90 chapters. Some chapters are but a paragraph long; others span multiple pages. The subject matter is challenging, but Prof. Gay’s language is not. As she provides some detail of her rape at a young age, the rape that she describes as a turning point that caused her to build up a physical distance between herself and others through weight gain, she manages to use language that is extremely uncomfortable and horrifying yet possible to read through.

The book focuses on her relationship with her body and what it is like to be in this world that does not value fat people, but it isn’t a laundry list of the challenges she faces. Yes, there are chapters about the frustrations she deals with when traveling, but Prof. Gay finds a way to discuss it that simultaneously points out all the ways people unintentionally — and intentionally — shun, punish, or otherwise seek to harm fat bodies AND remind us all that this is her experience. She isn’t a headless fat person on the evening news; she is a person who lives in this body, who deserves to be seen and respected. And we as a society — and individuals — fail at this. Hard. And often.

And people suffer because of it.

As Prof. Gay points out in the beginning, this is not a ‘before’ and ‘after’ story in the sense that you’ll see her holding up her old clothes and her new, skinny body. She is still a very fat woman. And she is still valuable, and worth love, respect, and basic human decency. She won’t be more of a person if she weighs less.

This is a book you should read. We live in a world where it is so easy to deny the humanity of those who are not like us. Even some of the progressive folks I know, who would never dare mock someone who is a different race, religion, or sexual orientation than themselves, still make shitty comments about fat people. Still used fat as an insult. Still take joy in seeing other people gain weight. And that’s really fucking shitty.

12

Best for: Those interested in a fun (but surprisingly serious) look at how the sausage is made.

In a nutshell: Comedy writer turned senator provides the story of how he got where he is, and what it really means to be a U.S. Senator.

Line that sticks with me: “They’re all extremely conservative Republicans who I’m sure don’t want me to say anything good about them. And make no mistake, I hope they get beat in their next elections. But they’re there right now! And just as part of my job is standing my ground against all the terrible hings they want to do, part of it is looking for opportunities to find common ground, because that’s how stuff gets done.” (p284)

Why I chose it: I’ve read most (maybe all?) of Sen. Franken’s books, and this one called my name from the airport bookstore.

Review: If you like Al Franken, then you’ll like this book. If you don’t, you still might like this. However, if you are looking for nothing more than revolution against all members of the GOP, then you might find Sen. Franken’s pragmatism unforgivable.

Sen. Franken spends nearly half of the book sharing how he got to be a senator. He talks (briefly) about his days working at Saturday Night Live, but spends a lot of time talking about how he came to the idea of running for office, his first race for senate, and then the recount. Man, I forgot about that one.

As interesting and pithy as that half of the book is, the fascinating stuff comes in the second half, when he’s in the senate. Hearing his perspective on why he works with some of these people that those of us on the outside despise is … almost convincing. Of course, he acknowledges that he’s a white guy working in politics, but I think he doesn’t necessarily give enough credence to the fact that as a white guy, he has more wiggle room and is probably seen as less threatening to some Republicans than others.

At the same time, though, I appreciated reading his perspective on his job, and why he loves it, and what it really means to be a U.S. Senator. How you don’t always get your way. How you need to think about the people you represent (in his case, Minnesotans), but also about your own morals.

He started writing this book in earnest in November, and was working on it well into this year, to the point where he can talk about his experience with the Trump administration and his cabinet appointees. He’s as pissed as we are, and he uses the last couple of chapters to both encourage us all to fight back, and to tell the story of a young woman who represents all that is good in the US.

It’s an interesting look at our government that left me a little more hopeful.

11

“When Shin Song Hyuk was 3 years old, an American couple in Detroit adopted him and moved him from South Korea to the United States. His new family changed his name to Adam, but they didn’t fill out the forms guaranteeing citizenship for international adoptees. This meant Adam was in effect an undocumented immigrant.” 41-year-old adoptee deported after 37 years in the U.S. (by Jay Caspian King for Vice News)

Racism

“It wasn’t long before the dregs of society—Fox News readers—came for Taylor, proving that they are exactly the vile, violent, white supremacist cowards that the Democratic leadership is sill trying to woo for the midterm elections and beyond. These are the people who don’t care that Trump is a white supremacist representing the White Nationalist Party in everything but name, because they, too, hate black and brown people.” Princeton Professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor Cancels Public Appearances Amid Fox News-Fueled Death Threats (by Kirsten West Savali for The Root)

“The Quinault Indian Nation, headquartered in a tiny community of 840 on the edge of the Olympic Peninsula in Western Washington, has been reeling in the wake of what witnesses have described as a deliberate hit-and-run over the weekend that killed Smith-Kramer and injured his friend, Harvey Anderson, 19. Smith-Kramer, a father of two-year-old twins, had been celebrating his birthday at a Grays Harbor County campgrounds when the driver, who had been doing donuts in the parking lot, backed over him. Anderson told KING 5 that the driver hit reverse after the friends asked the driver to stop doing donuts, and Smith-Kramer tried to save Anderson by pushing him out of the way.” 20-Year-Old Quinault Father Killed by Hit-and-Run Was a “Basketball Hero,” Respected by Youth and Elders Alike (by Sydney Brownstone for The Stranger)

“But I won’t be watching the NFL this year. I can’t, in good conscience, support this league, with many of its pro-Trump owners, as it blacklists my friend and brother Colin Kaepernick for taking a silent, peaceful stance against injustice and police brutality in America. It’s disgusting and has absolutely nothing to do with football and everything to do with penalizing a brilliant young man for the principled stance he took last season.” KING: I’m boycotting the NFL because of its blatant bigotry and anti-blackness(by Shaun King for The Daily News)

“But Maher has a long history of racist, sexist, and grossly bigoted public comments. The audience, like Sasse, reacted with instant glee to the “joke” because it’s exactly what they expect from the Real Time host. He’s deeply Islamophobic. He once asked a Pakistani-British member of a popular boy band where he was during the Boston Bombing. He routinely denigrates the Quran, Muslims, and Islam—occasionally under the guise of a joke, but often in outright statements of naked bigotry.” Bill Maher has been a public racist for a long time. Here are the receipts. (by Emily Q. Hazzard for Think Progress)